The last time they shared a pitch, 90 minutes away from a major final, they stood shoulder to shoulder.
They were the master and his apprentice, 13 years apart in age, compatriots with the weight of a nation’s expectations on their shoulders.
The occasion was a coming of age for Eric Bailly, and turned out to be a blessed relief for Kolo Toure.
The two centre-halves, internationals for the Ivory Coast at either ends of their careers, both hope to feature for the full 90 minutes or more in Thursday night’s second leg of the Europa League semi-final at Anfield.
Liverpool, missing the banned Mamadou Sakho and with concerns over the form of Martin Skrtel, are expected to maintain Toure at the heart of their defence in a tie delicately poised at 1-0 to tonight's visitors.
Villarreal are buoyed in their belief they can keep the English club at bay because of Bailly’s return to fitness from a minor thigh complaint.
Ask around Spanish football about Villarreal's success this season, why they are on course to qualify for the Uefa Champions League, and you will be pointed towards the tidy defending of the unpretentious club from the Mediterranean, meaner at the back than Real Madrid and only marginally leakier than Barcelona.
The contributions of their tall, boyish stopper have not gone unnoticed. Ask around Europe about the best young centre-halves, and Bailly’s name crops up quickly.
Ask Bailly about his precocious development and he will reply that he had sound role models to learn from. The name Kolo Toure crops up quickly.
When Bailly was 10 years old, growing up near Abidjan, the older of the celebrated Toure brothers was going through an entire Premier League season unbeaten with Arsenal, a pathfinder for Ivorian football in the glamorous elite of the sport, well before Didier Drogba became the national hero.
Fully a decade ago, Kolo was appearing in a Champions League final. That one he lost, a member of the Arsenal team beaten 2-1 by Barcelona.
In the decade since, Kolo Toure has grasped at big prizes, gained some (including a Premier League with Manchester City) and not quite clutched onto others.
But 15 months ago, he at last held onto the one that slipped away most frustratingly. That was the Africa Cup of Nations, where Toure and Bailly lined up next to one another at centre-half in Equatorial Guinea.
Toure, now 35, had planned his retirement from 15 years’ service with the Ivorian national team to coincide with a winning final. He had already lost two Nations Cup finals with his country and wanted to bow out with the gold medal that had proved so elusive.
In Bailly, 20 at the time, Toure found a handy ally for the task. Quick and athletic, Bailly complemented the veteran. Experienced and vocal, Toure guided the novice, consoled Bailly when he gave away a penalty in the semi-final against the Democratic Republic of Congo, the one setback on the way to a 3-1 win.
Come the final, they proved an invincible pairing for two hours, holding to a goalless draw against a talented Ghana attack.
Come the penalty shoot-out, the wise old head and the newcomer both held their nerve. Toure took spot-kick No 7 and Bailly No 9 of the 11 Ivory Coast required to win the title.
Toure might have eased down his club career after that, taken a gig outside Europe. When he made no starts in the Premier League from the beginning of Liverpool’s season up until new year, he might have supposed he should have moved on.
But the last few months have made him feel important again, appreciated for his savvy, the skill at what his former coach with Ivory Coast, Herve Renard, calls “being a manager on the pitch”.
Villarreal’s Bailly, the New Kolo Toure of Ivory Coast’s team, has been one of the beneficiaries of that.
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